Nine

Nine

34" Wide x 55" Tall

Acrylic on Board

No Longer Available

In order to evoke the # 9, nine cats are stretched out around a spiral created using the Golden Section. The board is built to Golden Section dimensions, broken down into smaller and smaller parts:

34" x 55" board
34" x 34" square at the bottom
21 x 34" top section
21" x 21" top right square
13" x 21" top left section
13" x 13" top left square
8" x 13" section beneath that with
8" x 8" square and to the right of that,
5" x 8" section with
5" x 5" square and then
3" x 5" section with
3" x 3" square and
2" x 3" section with
(2) 1" x 1" squares

These numbers, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, and 55 are Fibonacci numbers, a sequence of numbers whose successive ratios approach the Golden Ratio, as they approach infinity. (The Golden Ratio, is an irrational number --- one that goes on to infinity without ever repeating itself.) For instance, take the 2 and the 3 in the Fibonacci series 3/2 = 1.5; 5/3 = 1.67; 8/5 = 1.6; 13/8 = 1.63; 21/13 = 1.62, etc.

This golden ratio measures the fraction of a turn between successive leaves on the stalk of a plant: 1/2 for elm and linden, 1/3 for beech and hazel, 2/5 for oak and apple, 3/8 for poplar and rose, 5/13 for willow and almond, etc.

Words and Glyphs for the Number 9 are woven throughout the piece, with repetitions used to evoke the sense of patterns.

Click here to go to the Museum of the Golden Ratio .